Rose Festival floats prepared for Grand Floral parade (Photos)

In a cavernous warehouse in Southeast Portland, employees of SCi 3.2 work to complete a fleet of floats for the Rose Festival parade Saturday night. During the week leading up to the parade, workers are on the job from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. welding, painting and applying foam to floats.

"There's about 2,000 hours in fabrication of a float from design work, fabrication, covering, artwork, decoration and completion," says Gene Dent, owner of SCi 3.2, who is fabricating all but one of the festive vehicles in this year's parade.

Last minute decorations are applied until midnight on Friday when the three-hour process of moving the floats begins. Though all of the floats are self-propelled, each craft is towed downtown with a police escort. This year the floats will take a new route down Powell Blvd.